1972 United States presidential election

==Republican nomination==
{{Main|1972 Republican Party presidential primaries}}

Republican candidates:
*[[Richard Nixon]], [[President of the United States]] from [[California]]
*[[Pete McCloskey]], [[United States House of Representatives|Representative]] from [[California]]
*[[John M. Ashbrook]], Representative from [[Ohio]]

{{Richard Nixon series}}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"
|-
| style="background:#f1f1f1;" colspan="30"|[[File:Republican Disc.svg|65px|center|link=Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party (United States)]]<big> '''1972 Republican Party ticket'''</big>
|-
! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#E81B23; width:200px;"| [[Richard Nixon|{{color|white|Richard Nixon}}]]
! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#E81B23; width:200px;"| [[Spiro Agnew|{{color|white|Spiro Agnew}}]]
|- style="color:#000; font-size:100%; background:#ffd0d7;"
| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|'''''for President'''''
| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|'''''for Vice President'''''
|-
| [[File:Richard Nixon presidential portrait.jpg|center|200x200px]]
| [[File:Spiro Agnew.jpg|center|200x200px]]
|-
|[[List of presidents of the United States|37th]]<br />[[President of the United States]]<br /><small>(1969–1974)</small>
|[[List of vice presidents of the United States|39th]]<br />[[Vice President of the United States]]<br /><small>(1969–1973)</small>
|-
| colspan=2 |[[Presidency of Richard Nixon#Election of 1972|'''Campaign''']]
|-
| colspan=2 |[[File:Nixon Agnew 1972 campaign logo.svg|200x200px]]
|-
|}

===Primaries===
Nixon was a popular incumbent president in 1972, as he was credited with opening the [[People's Republic of China]] as a result of [[Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China|his visit]] that year, and achieving [[détente]] with the [[Soviet Union]]. Polls showed that Nixon held a strong lead in the Republican primaries. He was challenged by two candidates: [[modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]] [[Pete McCloskey]] from California, and [[conservatism in the United States|conservative]] [[John Ashbrook]] from Ohio. McCloskey ran as an anti-war candidate, while Ashbrook opposed Nixon's détente policies towards [[People's Republic of China|China]] and the Soviet Union. In the [[New Hampshire primary]], McCloskey garnered 19.8% of the vote to Nixon's 67.6%, with Ashbrook receiving 9.7%.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.primarynewhampshire.com/new-hampshire-primary-past-results.php |title=New Hampshire Primary historical past election results. 2008 Democrat & Republican past results. John McCain, Hillary Clinton winners |publisher=Primarynewhampshire.com |access-date=2014-08-17 |archive-date=July 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715112805/http://www.primarynewhampshire.com/new-hampshire-primary-past-results.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> Nixon won 1323 of the 1324 delegates to the Republican convention, with McCloskey receiving the vote of one delegate from New Mexico. Vice President [[Spiro Agnew]] was re-nominated by acclamation; while both the party's moderate wing and Nixon himself had wanted to replace him with a new running-mate (the moderates favoring [[Nelson Rockefeller]], and Nixon favoring [[John Connally]]), it was ultimately concluded that such action would incur too great a risk of losing Agnew's base of conservative supporters.

===Primary results===
{{Election box begin no party no change|title=1972 [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] presidential primaries<ref name="Kalb">{{Cite book |title=Guide to U.S. Elections |publisher=[[CQ Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=9781604265361 |editor-last=Kalb |editor-first=Deborah |edition=6th |location=Washington, DC |pages=415}}</ref>}}
{{Election box winning candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Richard Nixon|Richard M. Nixon]] (incumbent)|votes=5,378,704|percentage=86.9}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Unpledged delegates|votes=317,048|percentage=5.1}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[John Ashbrook|John M. Ashbrook]]|votes=311,543|percentage=5.0}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Pete McCloskey|Paul N. McCloskey]]|votes=132,731|percentage=2.1}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[George Wallace|George C. Wallace]]|votes=20,472|percentage=0.3}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate="None of the names shown"|votes=5,350|percentage=0.1}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Write-in candidate|Others]]|votes=22,433|percentage=0.4}}
{{Election box total no party no change|votes=6,188,281|percentage=100}}
{{End}}

===Convention===
Seven members of [[Vietnam Veterans Against the War]] were brought on federal charges for conspiring to disrupt the Republican convention.<ref name="'70s 52">{{cite book|title= How We Got Here: The '70s|last= Frum|first= David|author-link= David Frum|year= 2000|publisher= Basic Books|location= New York, New York|isbn= 0-465-04195-7|page= [https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/52 52]|url= https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/52}}</ref> They were acquitted by a federal jury in [[Gainesville, Florida|Gainesville]], [[Florida]].<ref name="'70s 52"/>